Retired professor of history, Yale University; author of The American Future

Most overrated:

Benjamin Franklin. He overrated himself, to begin with, and historians ever since have believed him. Without a printing press and a larcenous view of other people’s ideas, he would have ended up as a second-rate shopkeeper and third-rate politician. If he were alive today, with access to movies and television, he would be a third-rate former actor in the White House.

Most underrated:

Anyone who has not been a public figure. Think about it.